In 2025, fire departments serving Washington responded to 15 fire and hazmat incidents . Here's the full picture.
Building fires lead by count. Building fires lead by dollars. Together the top five categories make up about 80% of all calls.
Aug peaks. Jan dips. Watch for the typical fall climb starting in October.
23 incidents 2021–2025. Peak year was 2025.
| Year | Incidents | YoY | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021* | 0 | — | |
| 2022* | 1 | — | |
| 2023* | 1 | — | |
| 2024 | 6 | — | |
| 2025 | 15 | +150.0% |
* Well below Washington's usual volume. That almost always means one or more departments didn't submit a full year to NFIRS, not that fires dropped, so no year-over-year change is shown for it.
For the 5 building fires Washington departments responded to in 2025, here's how they were classified once investigators were finished.
NFIRS Area of Origin (AREA_ORIG) for the 3 building fires investigators classified across 2021–2025. The room or location where ignition occurred — kitchens, bedrooms, exterior, vehicle areas — tells you where to focus prevention.
| # | Area of origin | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Wildland, woods | 1 | 33.3% |
NFIRS Heat Source (HEAT_SOURC) — the physical thing that started it. Spark or ember from operating equipment, an open flame, smoking materials, or hot embers from a fireplace are the leading culprits nationwide. Here's the Washington mix.
| # | Heat source | Count | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undetermined | 2 | 66.7% | |
| 2 | Lightning | 1 | 33.3% |
Per-capita rates let us compare apples to apples. Washington sits above the national average for incidents per resident.
Top 25 wildfires (1992+) in the FPA-FOD ignitions database, scaled by acres. 1,419 acres burned in this 50-mile radius. Each dot is a fire — bigger dots burned more land.
| Year | Cause | Acres | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 270 | 42.4 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 190 | 8.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 137 | 40.7 mi | |
| 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 120 | 40.6 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 92 | 32.8 mi | |
| 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 60 | 39.1 mi | |
| 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 59 | 24.3 mi | |
| 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 54 | 44.7 mi | |
| 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 47 | 37.4 mi | |
| 2015 | Debris and open burning | 46 | 41.0 mi | |
| 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | 46 | 9.3 mi | |
| 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 41 | 34.4 mi |
Top 1 ZIP codes by NFIRS incident count across 2021–2025. Each ZIP has its own fire profile — dive in for neighborhood-level context.
| # | ZIP | 5-yr incidents | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 03280 | 23 |
Six New Hampshire cities with population within ±25% of Washington. Useful comparison targets — same state, similar size, different fire profile.
A 30-minute weekend can cut your home's exposure substantially. These four checklists are a good starting point.
Numbers reflect incidents reported by participating fire departments to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) Public Data Release for calendar year 2025. NFIRS is voluntary — about 23,000 of roughly 30,000 US fire departments report — so totals are a strong indicator, not a complete census. Per-capita comparisons use 2023 ACS population estimates. Wildland fire data complements NFIRS with NIFC and USFS perimeters. Active-fire counts come from a dated NIFC snapshot, not a live feed.